Like it says, this thread is for discussing the UFC and similar events.

I just saw last night an advertisment for the UFC on Saturday night: Coutoure versus Belfort, sponsored by Miller Lite-- certainly a fight I want to see. I hope my hosts this weekend in Toronto will be getting the fight. (BTW I see that I will be missing, and competing with, the Superbowl on Sunday )

Like most people I have high regard for Coutoure (unappreciatedly smart in his training methods) but suspect that Belfort may not be as overloaded with steroids this time as he appeared to be at their first meeting. Could be a very good fight.

Comments?

Woof,Crafty Dog

PS: The sponsorship by a big name like Miller Lite is a promising sign for this sport becoming a bigger thing.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this fight. I've been a Randy Couture fan for a while now. He is a class act. Excellent all-around fighter, without the attitude. His bout against Tito Ortiz was the talk of our training group for a few weeks. It was a prime example of maturity and confidence dominating attitude and cockiness. If you watch the beginning of the match, Tito is fired-up and in Randy's face, while Randy has a look that says "Whatever kid, I already know how I'm going to beat you." Classic.

Not so sure what the outcome is going to be this time around. Vitor is a fast puncher, but he's also broken his hand numerous times. And while Randy is in excellent condition, if he meets solid resistance the later rounds go be difficult for him. Couture's strength on the ground is second to none, but Vitor is an excellent striker. We'll see what happens...

As for the Miller Lite promo push, I think that we will be seeing a transition within the next 12-18 months of UFC from pay-per-view to cable. The audiences are getting bigger, the ratings are rising, and the fighters are starting to get mainstream exposure (appearances on late night shows, mainstream news exposure, heavy promotion).

I think as more people get into watching the UFC, it will begin to take the fans that are becoming disillusioned with boxing. Boxing has been struggling for a little while now, and the fact that events like K-1 are being shown on ESPN is (IMHO) a sign of things to come for the UFC. If they can stay away from the glam and slam of professional wrestling, and start to appeal to a broader audience their success should skyrocket.

I'm actually looking forward more to the Hughes/Penn fight. They're both excellent fighters, but I think that the physiological differences (Hughes coming down in weight, BJ coming up) will determine this fight. As much as I like BJ, he has QUITE the handful in Matt Hughes. Considering that BJ "lost" to Jens Pulver (Matt's teammate who I consider a "mini" Matt Hughes), things don't bode well for the Prodigy.

Couture will beat Vitor AGAIN. Vitor isn't focused enough for this fight, considering what going on with his sister's disappearance. My heart goes out to Vitor, but I think he'll lose.

Yeah, that's going to be an excellent match. It'll be interesting to see what Penn can bring. I agree that Hughes will be a handful for him, but I think Penn will give Matt a tough fight if they hit the ground.

I keep hearing about Belfort's sister, but don't know the details. What's the deal?

Like it says, this thread is for discussing the UFC and similar events.

I just saw last night an advertisment for the UFC on Saturday night: Coutoure versus Belfort, sponsored by Miller Lite-- certainly a fight I want to see. I hope my hosts this weekend in Toronto will be getting the fight. (BTW I see that I will be missing, and competing with, the Superbowl on Sunday )

Like most people I have high regard for Coutoure (unappreciatedly smart in his training methods) but suspect that Belfort may not be as overloaded with steroids this time as he appeared to be at their first meeting. Could be a very good fight.

Comments?

Woof,Crafty Dog

PS: The sponsorship by a big name like Miller Lite is a promising sign for this sport becoming a bigger thing.

Belfort seems to be back to his old, formidable self as of late--though this weird deal with his sister could certainly have an impact.

Like others here, I really like both of these guys, so I don't even know who I want to win. As to who will win, I am equally at a loss.

Randy is a master of the "ground-and-pound" in a way that is different from many of his other wrestling comrades. His very high-level background in Greco-Roman is what gives him an edge there. As Renzo Gracie black belt and Mastering Jujutsu author John Danher once wrote, no martial art pays more attention to clinch work than Greco-Roman wrestling--and Couture is supreme with clinch work. This allows him more options in terms of how to control a fight. His overall striking skills are nothing to sneeze at either, as his bouts with Liddell and Ortiz graphically revealed.

Still, Vitor is certainly no slouch in the striking department himself--remember the short work he made of guys like Vanderlei Silva? Plus, he's clearly got the edge in submissions, due to his BJJ background.

Whoever ends up the winner, it should indeed be a good fight.

Logged

"And the rapier blades, being so narrow and of so small substance, and made of a very hard temper to fight in private frays... do presently break and so become unprofitable." --Sir John Smythe, 1590

Vitor's sisters is under a "missing persons" status, as she hasn't been seen since Jan. 9, I believe. I don't have any other details.

I think the penn/hughes fight could very well be a mostly stand-up affair, as Penn is notoriously hard to take down, and Penn has said in an interview that he intends to keep it standing. It's a pretty good strategy, considering his opponent is slam-meister hughes. There's a good chance BJ will play counter, hoping to have hughes commit and make a mistake. But I have a gut feeling that bj will go on the offensive, hoping to surprise his much stronger opponent with his aggressiveness.

Couture has the edge on Vitor, but I think it's going to be a pretty close fight, as Vitor has submissions on the ground, and it might make couture tentative on offense once they go to the ground.

Okay, the situation regarding the cut on Couture's eye sucked--I'm not bummed about stopping the fight, as it was the right thing to do, but I think it should have been ruled a "No Contest", as opposed to giving the belt to Vitor (and you could tell that Vitor himself was not happy with the way he "won").

Anyway, the rest of the fights were generally really good.

That Lee Murray fellow made short work of "El Conquistadore".

Frank Mir looked a bit sloppy against the tall lanky dude--Mir's got good technique, but he got winded really quickly.

BJ Penn KICKED ASS! That was a tremendous bout, and Penn showed Hughes the power of jiu-jitsu! Great stuff.

BJ's jiu-jitsu teacher Renato did very well against Carlos Newton--he dominated the action throughout, and Newton look really frustrated.

I saw the fights last night and had a good time in the presence of a rowdy crowd (the promo taunts between Tito and Lidell were greeted with "Get a new script writer!" and an advert for "The Last Samurai" was met with the observation that Tom Cruise liked the script because he got to play next to people his height.)

Anyway, like all of you I was bummed at the freak turn of events in the Couture-Belfort fight. Concerning VB, I noted in the pre-fight footage they showed of his recent fights that he seems to have developed a low line striking attack-- kicks and some interesting looking knees. Because of his BJJ black belt from Carlson Gracie he is assumed to have good grappling skills, but I am unable to think of any grappling success in his fights. Wasn't there a rather pathetic fight in Japan with Joe Charles? - which to my eye looked like there was an unofficial 'no-striking' agreement? I may well be wrong in this, but based upon my current albeit incomplete knowledge, I think of him as a striker-- and now that he has low and midline strikes he has a dimension where RC may be less tested-- and he's off the juice it seems. Not picking him over the excellent RC, just offering some observations.

A buddy of mine who had a number of amateur kickboxing fights out of Benny "the Jet" Urquidez's gym did a fight scene with JCVD in "Lionheart" (the remake of Charles Bronson's "Hard Times"). He told me JC had no footwork, no range awareness, and in general sucked.

You ever see the clip of JC on the Arsenio Hall show wherein he admits that he and Dolph Lungren staged a pushing match at Cannes as a publicity stunt to help promote a movie?

A buddy of mine who had a number of amateur kickboxing fights out of Benny "the Jet" Urquidez's gym did a fight scene with JCVD in "Lionheart" (the remake of Charles Bronson's "Hard Times"). He told me JC had no footwork, no range awareness, and in general sucked.

You ever see the clip of JC on the Arsenio Hall show wherein he admits that he and Dolph Lungren staged a pushing match at Cannes as a publicity stunt to help promote a movie?

I caught only the Rua-Jones fight last night, but what a fight it was!

Rua is a great fighter and champion, and showed considerable heart (Herb Dean is a very good ref, but I thought he was slow on the stoppage last night) but Jones was just too much. Very, very impressive!

Interesting the way Rua offered and Jones accepted the hand shake before the fight.

Jones looked a tad gassed coming into the second round, but craftily used tactics that allowed him to continue to score, without putting himself to the test aerobically.

Good fight! Jones was unrelenting... GnP with the elbows, way longer reach... noticed some jeet teks, some just raised to stop Rua's movement... a few side kicks, very good fight.

And hours prior to fighting for the UFC's LHW championship in the biggest fight of his career to date, Jon Jones was meditating in the park and he and Coach Greg Jackson and 1 other coach caught a would-be mugger crackhead.

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

i was REALLY rooting for Cro Cop and Shogun in their respective bouts. Cro Cop looks to be a shadow of the fighter he once was(i'm hesitant to say he looked ''old''. i think he just has not advanced technically or tactically), and Shogun was just overmatched. Jon Jones is G O O D.

It wouldn't surprise me. EH took his Christianity pretty seriously. I remember being moved by him powerfully singing gospel (he was in his church's choir too IIRC) in the locker room before his first fight with Tyson. When I saw that I knew Tyson was going to lose.

I may be over-thinking, but think that Jake Ellenberger was testing Pierson's peripheral vision with his left hand move after the parry of Sean's jab... once the left hand reaches a certain point, Pierson won't pick up on it without moving his head, but once he does that, the right may be coming so he doesn't move the head... and Jake launches a left hook out of Pierson's peripheral vision... don't think I've ever seen this before.

Left Hook KO gif coming...

EDIT:

« Last Edit: April 30, 2011, 09:52:57 PM by Stickgrappler »

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Glad to see old gym mate Vlady Matyshenko back in the UFC and scoring with a quick KO. Great Karate Kid kick from Lyoto!!! What up with Steven Seagal?!? I noticed him sitting there with Spider and that Lyoto gave him props too. He has a substantial reputation as a major anus, but fighters like Spider and Lyoto can choose with whom they train , , , Bit of a stinker of a fight with GSP and Shields. No blame to GSP, it looks like he got his cornea scratched in the second round, but WTF was Shields' strategy?

My thanks to my friend K-Dub-T for posting this gif... not my gif, props to the gif maker.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Interesting,. Aikido forums have been blowing up since his appearance, and it appears this was all cooked up:

Steven Seagal did not, in fact, teach Anderson Silva anything and certainly not the kick which knocked out Vitor Belfort at UFC 126.

This should really have been obvious to everyone but it has taken a reporter from Brazilan outfit Portal De Vale Tudo to definitively debunk it.

"The declaration of the champion Anderson Silva (Seagal helping him with the amazing kick) was contemplated with humor by the fans, who knows that the actor was at most twice with the Brazilian," a report in the online magazine says.

"The approach between the two was actually a marketing maneuver planned by the agent of Anderson, Jorge Joinha, to give more visibility to it's champion in the American media. The plan worked very well in the first stage, the problem was in the wrong dose and reached the absurdity of assigning a brilliant victory by the biggest name in the MMA of all time to a "Master of Hollywood" who never climbed in the ring.

"The worst of all is that Segal, perhaps influenced by some of his films, believed and even stated in several interviews after the fight that "He (Anderson) did everything the way i taught him and made me very proud". For God's sake..."

So, that's cleared that up. Segal didn't teach Anderson his fight-finishing kick (which, incidentally, Anderson used on Dan Henderson and Lee Murray and also featured in an instructional he produced TWO YEARS AGO).

This seems to have escaped the notice of Mr Segal himself who has given numerous interviews detailing his "pride" in Anderson's winning technique. He is either deluded or putting in the performance of his acting career.